Florida State Tops Preseason AP Top 25 Poll

Defending champion Florida State picks up right where it left off last season, atop the college football rankings. The Seminoles were a near-unanimous selection in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll, earning 57 out of 60 first-place votes.

The Seminoles bring back a load of key performers from last year’s championship team. The offense will once again be led by reigning Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston, who rewrote the history books with over 3,800 total yards and 38 touchdowns last season as a redshirt freshman. Meanwhile, the defense returns seven starters from a unit that led the nation in scoring defense last year.

Alabama, Oregon, Oklahoma (all of whom received one first-place vote) and Ohio State round out the top five. Auburn, which fell to Florida State in last year’s national title game, comes in at No. 6.

The SEC continues to be football’s top conference, holding eight of the Top 25, but the Pac-12 isn’t far behind with six. And the top of the poll is much more balanced than in recent years, with teams from the SEC, ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12 all cracking the Top 5.

This is sixth time Florida State will start the season ranked No. 1, but the first since 1999. That year, the Seminoles became the first team in history to hold the top spot all year during an undefeated national championship season.